After the Grief: The Lawyers

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross has delineated five stages of reaction to death, from denial to acceptance, but in America there is a sixth: litigation. Just days after the Columbine shootings, the father of Isaiah Shoels, a slain 18-year-old, made a call to attorney Geoffrey Fieger, famous for defending Jack Kevorkian, about representing his family. No suits have been filed yet, and Colorado bars lawyers from soliciting clients for 30 days after an incident. But it is probable that a wave of lawsuits is coming from the victims' families and from those injured in the shootings. What is less certain is what good they will do.

Who could be sued? The killers' parents are obvious targets. Many find it hard to believe the Harrises and Klebolds didn't have a clue that their kids were buying guns, making bombs and spending a year plotting the rampage. Still, the law makes it difficult to prevail in suits against parents for the acts of children. And even if the plaintiffs beat the odds, the families' assets and homeowner's insurance wouldn't go far. The school district is another possibility, if it is shown that Columbine High officials ignored signs that Harris and Klebold were a threat. Among those warning signals: a videotape the two boys made simulating a school bloodbath; and some verbal threats made by Harris. Yet even if the school blundered, Colorado gives the government immunity except in rare cases.

Then there are the police. The Jefferson County sheriff has been faulted for failing to follow up on complaints by the parents of Brooks Brown that Harris had threatened their son. Police have also been criticized for not acting faster on April 20 to storm the school and stop the shootings. The strongest claim could come from the family of Dave Sanders, the teacher who bled to death while waiting three hours for help. Yet any suit against the police would again run into immunity problems, as well as the reluctance of courts to second-guess police on tactics. "It's not like Waco, where law enforcement's own action produced the death," says Denver trial lawyer Bill Keating.

A few individuals could be liable: the gun seller whom police are investigating for selling a semiautomatic that may have been used in the killing; a pizza-parlor co-worker of Harris and Klebold who may have been the middleman in the gun sale; and Robyn Anderson, Klebold's prom date, who police say bought three guns used in the massacre. But probably none of them have enough money to justify the time and effort of a suit. The victims might turn to bigger culprits. Victims of the Jonesboro, Ark., school killings have sued gunmakers, and victims of the Paducah, Ky., shooting are suing Time Warner and PolyGram, the maker of The Basketball Diaries, a movie in which a student imagines shooting his classmates.

Ironically, it is the survivors of the Columbine massacre, rather than the families of the dead, who may stand the best chance of collecting. The grimmest TV footage out of Littleton was of a badly injured boy dangling out of a window until he could be rescued by a SWAT team. Patrick Ireland, 17, was shot in the brain and is partially paralyzed on his right side. He is likely to have enormous medical bills for years. If victims like him were to seek redress in court, it would take a jury with a heart of stone to send them home empty-handed.